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The Clean Growth Strategy Released

Today, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published its strategy to achieve a low carbon future - “The Clean Growth Strategy: Leading the way to a low carbon future”.

The strategy details how over £2.5 billion will be invested by the Government to support low carbon innovation from 2015 to 2021, and also highlights the reductions in UK emissions over recent years (alongside a growth in GDP). A number of key policies have been put in place and targets set.

Prime Minister Theresa May introduces the strategy with a key message; "This Government is determined to leave our natural environment in a better condition than we found it. Clean growth is not an option, but a duty we owe to the next generation, and economic growth has to go hand-in-hand with greater protection for our forests and beaches, clean air and places of outstanding natural beauty."

The strategy sets out the aim to "accelerate the pace of clean growth" and be a front runner in clean growth to encourage others to "follow our example". There is also a focus on innovation: "It is only through innovation – nurturing better products, processes and systems – that we will see the cost of clean technologies come down."

Among measures set out in the strategy, a pledge has been made to work towards the ambition for zero avoidable waste by 2050. To find out more about this, please read the report from CIWM.

Reaction from our Licensed Bodies

Comments...

The aspiration that all homes should reach a minimum EPC standard of C by 2035 is a bit weak, and slightly muddled by other domestic targets having dates of 2030 and 2032. There will be a consultation next year on this, looking at milestones, but with funding apparently restricted to ECO and standards only for those in fuel poverty or rented (where the minimum standard is EPC E not C), it's hard to see how an "aspiration" will filter down to the mass of owner-occupiers who may grumble about bills, but can ultimately afford to pay them. The continuing focus on unit prices for energy, not total bills, exacerbates the problem.
Innovation will not solve this by itself - we need rigorous minimum standards, supported by incentives for better performance (as marginal running costs of lower energy using systems are increasingly unlikely to be met by short-term cost savings in operation).
But I welcome the increased emphasis on walking and cycling.